In the previous section we took up the question of why the Sages said «תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם», that Torah study outweighs all the other mitzvos, and we saw the first answer. That answer too does not step outside the principle of dirah betachtonim, making a dwelling for G-d in the lowest realm. For the meaning of dirah betachtonim is to refine the lower world, the body and the nefesh habahamis, and even within this very work of refining the lower world, Torah study fills a role that nothing else can fill: there is an inner layer of the refinement that only Torah reaches, and that refinement is the loftier one.
Why, then, is the Alter Rebbe not satisfied with this answer, and why does he add a second one?
Because the first answer alone is not enough. True, we answered that there is an inner dimension that only Torah study transforms. But in the end, in the realm of the «lower world» what counts is the deed. On the basis of that answer, the most we could say is that action remains primary, and that Torah study has an advantage in one particular area that can be reached only through learning. Yet the language «תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם» implies that Torah study is in some measure greater even than the deed itself. The Alter Rebbe therefore brings a further answer, one that does not continue along the same line of completing the idea of dirah betachtonim, but points to an entirely different matter and reason.
The second answer in brief:
A Jew has to know and remember what his task and his mission in this world are, and about this there is no argument: why did his soul come down into this world? To make a dirah betachtonim, to refine the body, the heart and the world. That is the goal he must always be driving toward, and nothing overrides that mission.
Accordingly, when a person is weighing whether to learn Torah now or to attend to a practical mitzvah, we must distinguish between two situations:
When there is a clash: the mitzvah rests on him and cannot be done by anyone else, for example putting on tefillin, where one cannot send a substitute. Here there is no dilemma at all: his mission is to refine the lower world, and that refinement happens through the mitzvah, through the deed. So he does the deed.
When there is no clash: the deed can be done by someone else and is not specifically incumbent upon him, so nothing of his mission in the world will be lost. In such a case we tell a Jew «תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם», because through learning Torah he draws down upon his soul an immense divine light that nothing else draws down.
A person is not entitled to say «dirah betachtonim» and leave it at that, forgoing the refinement, the light and the power he is capable of drawing down upon his soul. When there is a clash we tell him: do not think about the light you are drawing into your soul, think about your mission. But when there is no clash, and the only question is what to occupy himself with right now, then Torah study outweighs all the mitzvos, for in learning he draws upon himself a very great light.
The Alter Rebbe's words in the text:
«זאת ועוד אחרת, והיא העולה על כולנה, במעלת עסק תלמוד תורה על כל המצוות», there is a further point, and it rises above them all, in the superiority of Torah study over all the mitzvos. The Alter Rebbe explains this distinction on the basis of what we already learned in Tanya in chapter 23, where he contrasted two expressions:
Of Torah the Zohar says: «אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא כולא חד», the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are entirely one.
Of the mitzvos the Tikunei Zohar says: «רמ"ח פקודין אינון רמ"ח אברין דמלכא», the 248 commandments are the 248 limbs of the King.
And this is the explanation given there at length: in a human body, every healthy limb is a vessel through which the soul's power flows. The hand is healthy, and the soul acts through it: a person writes, draws, accomplishes, and what you see is not the limb but the soul flowing through it. Still, there is no comparing the standing of a limb, even a perfectly healthy one, with the standing of the inner soul itself. Where is greater soul-power revealed, in the intellect or in the hand? The intellect is the very essence, while the hand is a limb that is batel, nullified, to the person. This is the difference between mitzvos and Torah: the mitzvos are physical things that express the divine will, like the limbs, whereas of the Torah it is said «אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא כולא חד».
In his words: «על-פי מה שכתוב לעיל בשם התיקונים דרמ"ח פקודין הן רמ"ח אברין דמלכא», as written above in the name of the Tikunim, that the 248 commandments are the 248 limbs of the King, «וכמו באדם התחתון, דרך משל אין ערוך ודמיון כלל בין החיות שברמ"ח איבריו לגבי החיות שבמוחין, שהוא השכל המתחלק לג' בחינות חכמה בינה ודעת», just as in a human being below, by way of analogy, there is no comparison or resemblance whatsoever between the life-force in his 248 limbs and the life-force in the brain, which is the intellect divided into the three faculties of chochmah, binah and daas. There is simply no way to measure the vitality in the hand and the foot against the vitality revealed in the brain, meaning not the physical brain but the revelation of chochmah, binah and daas within it.
«ככה ממש דרך משל, להבדיל ברבבות הבדלות לאין קץ, בהארת אור אין סוף ברוך הוא המתלבשת במצוות מעשיות לגבי הארת אור אין סוף שבבחינת חכמה בינה ודעת שבחכמת התורה», exactly so, by way of analogy, though with myriads of infinite distinctions, is the difference between the radiance of the Ein Sof that is clothed in the practical mitzvos and the radiance of the Ein Sof that is in the chochmah, binah and daas of the wisdom of Torah. One who fulfills a mitzvah also draws a great light upon himself, bonds with the divine will and receives a lofty divine radiance, yet the divine light a person draws upon his soul through Torah study is incomparably greater, by myriads of infinite distinctions, and through it he is refined, elevated and sanctified beyond all proportion to what the mitzvos accomplish.
And this is true «איש איש כפי שכלו והשגתו», each person according to his own intellect and grasp. Even one who learns something simple, a few lines whose plain meaning he has understood, already has in that simple understanding a divine radiance out of all proportion to the radiance of fulfilling a mitzvah.
«ואף שאינו משיג אלא בגשמיות», even though what he grasps is only the physical dimension. A person learns entirely physical concepts: «one who exchanges a cow for a donkey» and the laws of acquisition, or «two are holding a garment, this one says it is all mine and this one says it is all mine.» One might well ask: had he been learning Kabbalah and deep matters, he would feel a divine radiance, but in such physical subjects, where is it?
To this the Alter Rebbe brings what was explained earlier, that the Torah is compared to water: just as water descends from a high place to a low place, so the Torah descended from a high place to a low place. And this is not a mere figure of speech; there is depth in it. After all, many things descend from a high place to a low one, and sunlight too comes down from on high and reaches below. What, then, is unique about water?
The difference is this: sunlight below is not the same light as it is above; it changes in intensity and in many details. Water, by contrast, that has descended to a low place is exactly the same water that was above, with no change at all. So too with Torah: one cannot say that learning physical subjects is somehow not the same thing, and that had he been learning spiritual concepts it would have been loftier. The descent into lowly concepts does not change the water.
A five year old sitting in cheder and understanding the simplest things is learning the very same Torah that the souls in Gan Eden are learning, literally the same Torah with all its power. Just as with water, where all the minerals and properties of that element are fully present from the highest point to the lowest, so it is with Torah.
And from here comes the superiority expressed in «תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם»: in learning Torah there is a divine revelation and radiance incomparably greater than in performing a mitzvah. If so, should a person not simply run to learn Torah alone and never occupy himself with the deed?
To this the Alter Rebbe continues: «ואף על פי כן אמרו רבותינו ז"ל», and nevertheless our Sages said. Even though the Sages knew the full greatness of Torah, they ruled «לא המדרש עיקר אלא המעשה», study is not the essential thing but the deed. A person must not remain forever in his learning, because the Holy One, blessed be He, wants a dirah betachtonim. Not everyone stands on that level, and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was one whose Torah was his sole occupation, but every Jew must know that his mission in this world is the deed, as it says «היום לעשותם», today to do them: «today» is this world, and «tomorrow» is the World to Come.
Therefore one sets aside Torah study for the performance of a practical mitzvah: when the hour of the mitzvah arrives, a person closes the book and goes to do it. He cannot claim that he is in the middle of learning the laws of sukkah and therefore will not go in to eat in the sukkah, arguing that by entering the sukkah he draws down the light of a mitzvah, which is lower, while by learning the laws of sukkah he draws down a loftier divine light. We tell him: close the book and go into the sukkah.
But all this applies specifically when the mitzvah cannot be done by others, since no one can enter the sukkah in his place. A mitzvah that can be done by others, and someone else will in fact do it for him, does not interrupt his learning; he continues.
In summary: in this section we learned the Alter Rebbe's second answer to the question of why «תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם»: the superiority of Torah study over all the mitzvos, since the mitzvos are «רמ"ח אברין דמלכא», the limbs of the King, while Torah is on the level of chochmah, binah and daas, so that the divine radiance in learning is utterly beyond comparison to that of the mitzvos. And this holds even when one is learning physical subjects, since the Torah is compared to water that descends from a high place to a low place and remains literally the same water. Nevertheless, «לא המדרש עיקר אלא המעשה» and «היום לעשותם», and therefore one does set Torah study aside for a practical mitzvah that cannot be done by others, while for a mitzvah that others can do, one does not interrupt one's learning.
In the next section we will continue with the Alter Rebbe's words in chapter 37.